Happy (Late) Father's Day

Ben, since you couldn't watch this yesterday anyway, I'm just putting this up now. We love you and miss you. I was talking with the kids about what they thought would be a good idea for a Father's Day gift. As you know, we already mailed two things, but this was the other idea that they came up with. A video of them dancing (or trying out their moves, as Will puts it) because as Beth said, "our Dad makes us happy and he thinks it's funny when we dance." We love you. Enjoy watching your crazy kids.

(For anyone else wanting to see this, just let me know and I'll add you as someone allowed to see videos on our You Tube. :-) )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbcdFFZEYkA

53 Days Left

Yes, I'm aware that it's totally pathetic to keep labeling my blog posts with how many days are left until we're in Anchorage with Ben. But I don't care because I miss him. Here are some pictures of some of what we did yesterday. I didn't get the treasure hunt in there, which is ok because the treasure wasn't actually buried under the X so there would have been 4 or 5 pictures of holes without treasure before the one that had it. You gotta love 7 year old pirates having treasure burying duties.

Messy garden planting/treasure burying hands.

Messy messy face on a happy happy girl.

Messy garden planting hands.
Every morning I wake up to all three older kids staring down and Elaina and I. They love her so much and are so happy to see her and fight over holding her all. the. time.
The messy hands accent the still (sort of) present tattoos on her arm from weeks ago.
She smiled at me, on purpose, yesterday! I was trying so hard to capture it on film but she thought that the camera was far too interesting to be bothered with smiling at her mother.
A hose with a pressurized sprayer at the end that is under your control. Every little boys dream.
He thought he'd put it to good use and attack his sister.
He realized a little too late that it may not have been a good idea.

Overall it was a pretty fun summer day.

58 Days Left

And if I somehow didn't get the math right and there's more time left, don't tell me. I miss Ben and this whole apart thing stinks.
Here are some random pictures of the kids doing fun things like going to the park, jumping on the trampoline, playing silly games, and there's one of Will vacuuming cause he's the bestest boy ever. And as you can tell by their messy faces, they've all been enjoying some treats at Grandma's.

Will's healing sunburn. And in case you've noticed that Will always has on the same shirt, it's because he loves it and I have to wash it constantly so that he can wear it pretty much every day.

What could be more fun than jumping on the trampoline in your pajamas?

The First Offical Summer Day Without Ben.

Only 63 more days to go. I promised pictures of the kids every day for Ben. So here you go, love. They were all clean and ready for bed. They've played and played but not much time goes by that they don't ask where Daddy is and how he's feeling. And if anyone gets an owie, they all cry that they want their Daddy.


We all miss you very much Ben. And we can all agree with the words of Beth that she put in her email to you tonight: "Dad, I'll never forget ya."